SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

More Ideas for a More Democratic Senate

The Senate is a fundamentally undemocratic institution—more people live in Bed-Stuy than in Wyoming, but it’s the interests of the latter population that are served by two whole Senators—and it’s fun to think of ways around this particular quirk of the white slave-owning men who founded our great nation. The map of a redistricted America was fun; via FiveThirtyEight comes this guest Washington Post op-ed by Annie Lowrey, who has a number of great suggestions for realigning the Senate along proportional lines.

A Senate proportioned by income? Six senators would represent Americans making more than $100,000 annually; twenty-four senators would represent Americans making $10,000 or less.

A Senate proportioned along gender and racial lines? White women would be the largest bloc, with 37 votes.

By age? 16 for the Olds and 13 for the Youngs.

And so on. In all cases, is the point Lowrey persuasively argues, the result would be a Senate more authentically representative of the nation as a whole. (And, perhaps not coincidentally, a more liberal one.)